Solano County prison realignment plan ramps up

FAIRFIELD -- Classes and counseling aimed at keeping low-level offenders from cycling in and out of jail will start in Vallejo and Fairfield in April, Solano County probation officials said Wednesday.

"It's all coming together," Chief Probation Officer Chris Hansen told the panel overseeing Solano County's prison realignment effort. "It's not a quick process, but we are doing it as quickly as we can to service those in the greatest need."

On Feb. 26, the Solano County Board of Supervisors approved establishing two "day reporting centers," one in Vallejo and the other in Fairfield.

Approval of the centers followed several community forums in which some residents voiced concern that Vallejo would become a dumping ground for criminals. Probation officials, however, insist the site at 355 Tuolumne St. will serve low-level probationers already living in Vallejo.

According to the probation department, the centers -- officially named the Centers for Positive Change -- will provide behavioral classes, mental health and substance abuse counseling, GED classes, job training and drug testing. It is anticipated that both sites will be fully up and running by August, Hansen announced at Wednesday's Community Corrections Partnership meeting at the county government center.

The project is tied to state prison realignment legislation passed in 2011.

The legislation -- the result of a 2009 federal court order -- changed sentencing practices and shifted the responsibility for housing nonviolent, non-sexual and non-serious offenders to counties.

"We started at a high point of 120,000 people being supervised on parole, and once this whole shift is done in around 2016/17, we are going to be around 30,000," Northbay District Parole Administrator Deborah Johnson said. "So parole is truly downsizing. That's why you see the numbers going up in each of the counties."

As of March 7, 381 Solano County jail inmates were the result of prison realignment. Of the county's 412 "non-non-non" offenders under post-release county supervision, 152 or about 37 percent reside in Vallejo, according to the probation department.

Many are serving out sentences for drug or property crimes, and the vast majority are at "high" or "very high" risk of re-offending, officials said.

"We know what it takes to actually bring those numbers down," said Patrick Duterte, Solano County's director of health and social services. "... We have to have our Centers for Positive Change enacted and the services in place ... I don't think we can wait any longer. We're just going to continue to fill up the jail unless we move very quickly."